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Virtuoso violinist Movses Pogossian releases his soulful performance of Bach’s iconic Sonatas and Partitas for solo violin. The recording represents a wonderful balance between historically informed and modern approaches to the repertoire, and is shaped, in part, by Pogossian’s meaningful association with luminaries György and Márta Kurtág. Paul Griffiths contributes wonderfully creative and lyrical liner notes.

Acclaimed Armenian born violinist Movses Pogossian releases his performance of the full set of Bach's iconic Six Sonatas and Partitas for Solo Violin. Pogossian's soulful and thoughtful version strikes an ideal balance between various approaches to Bach. He incorporates the best characteristics of historically informed performance alongside aspects of the expansive, violinistic style associated with 20th century readings. His deep understanding of the structure of these works provides the foundation for the entire recording, elucidating the genius craft behind the fugues, the elegant harmonic architecture of the slow movements, and the brilliant "fortspinnung" or "spinning out" of motivic and episodic material in the fast movements. His lively articulation in dance movements is matched with a lyrical purity in the slower material. Pogossian mines the spiritual core of the slow movements brilliantly, preserving forward direction at deliberate tempi that allow him to explore the emotional color of each note. His approach is influenced by close work with György and Márta Kurtág, whose essential insights on Bach and music in general have inspired legions of wonderful musicians the world over. Pogossian is Professor of Violin at UCLA and can be heard as a soloist and chamber musician worldwide, as a champion of new compositions and virtuoso performer of works in the traditional canon. Proceeds from sales of this recording are going to support two organizations: Music for Food in Boston and the Lark Musical Society in Glendale, CA.

Movses Pogossian

Armenian-born violinist Movses Pogossian made his American debut with the Boston Pops in 1990, about which Richard Dyer of the Boston Globe wrote: “There is freedom in his playing, but also taste and discipline. It was a ery, centered, and highly musical performance.” He was a prizewinner at the 1986 Tchaikovsky International Competition, and the youngest ever first-prize winner of the 1985 USSR National Violin Competition, whose previous winners included David Oistrakh and Gidon Kremer. He has performed extensively as a soloist and recitalist in Europe, North America and Asia, and was artist-in-residence of the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra during their 2016/17 season. An avid chamber musician, Pogossian has collaborated with such artists as Jeremy Denk, Kim Kashkashian and Alexei Lubimov, and with members of the Tokyo, Kronos and Brentano String Quartets. A committed champion of new music, he has premiered over seventy works, many of them written for him. He has worked closely with composers such as György Kurtág, Tigran Mansurian, John Harbison and Augusta Read Thomas. At Kurtág’s invitation, Pogossian made his Darmstadt Festival debut in 2008, performing Kafka Fragments to critical acclaim. In Los Angeles, Pogossian is the Artistic Director of the Dilijan Chamber Music series, now in its fourteenth season, and frequently performs with the acclaimed series Monday Evening Concerts. He was a recipient of the 2011 Forte Award, given by the new-music organization Jacaranda for his outstanding contributions in this eld. Movses Pogossian’s discography includes several CDs for solo violin, including the recently released recording of the Complete Sonatas and Partitas by J.S. Bach, Blooming Sounds, and In Nomine, as well as György Kurtág’s Kafka Fragments, with soprano Tony Arnold.

In his review of Kafka Fragments, Paul Grif ths writes “ . . . remarkable is Pogossian’s contribution, which is always beautiful, across a great range of colors and gestures, and always seems on the edge of speaking—or beyond.” In 2015, Pogossian’s recording of composer Stefan Wolpe’s Complete Works for Violin (Bridge Records) was included in the Top Ten list of the Sunday Times (UK), and in 2018, the Bridge label will release a lmed performance on DVD of chamber music by Arnold Schoenberg and Anton Webern. The centerpiece of this presentation is one of Schoenberg’s most important works—his String Trio, Op. 45, performed by Pogossian, violist Kim Kashkashian and cellist Rohan de Saram—which was recorded for this DVD in Schoenberg’s Brentwood home, in the very room in which it was composed. Pogossian’s upcoming CD releases include another collaboration with Kim Kashkashian: a compilation of chamber works by Armenian composer Tigran Mansurian. Since earning advanced degrees in music from the Komitas Conservatory in Armenia and the Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow, Pogossian has held teaching positions at a number of universities in the US, and is currently Professor of Violin Studies at the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music. Deeply committed to both music education and community involvement, Pogossian proudly participates in the Music for Food Project, which raises awareness of world hunger, allowing performers and listeners alike to experience the powerful role which music can play as a catalyst for change.

Reviews

Gapplegate Classical

When it comes to Johann Sebastian Bach's works for solo violin and solo cello, it seems to me that their popularity and influence are at a peak. Or is it just that my appetite for hearing them has become more insatiable as I seem to continually hear them anew? But it is not just me. I have come across and mentioned on these pages a number of interesting compositions in the contemporary new music scene that make use of solo Bach in creating new confluences. And the number of new releases of recorded performances of the solo works seems higher than ever before...and more diverse in terms of the baroque to modern spectrum of possibilities.

I won't try to explain why this may be so. I cannot easily say, except to note the possibility that we are in a new baroque era ourselves, aesthetically speaking. A discussion on that would tip the balance of this review away from the music itself, so I must cut it short. Regardless, the solo works speak to us today as some of the most direct expressions of Bach's genius, surely. And string players have for a long time had the tackling of these works as a key part of their training, no? What counts in the end is their beauty, their facing of the musical cosmos with just four strings and a wealth of inventive brilliance.

Armenian violinist Movses Pogossian brings us a new version of Bach's Six Sonatas and Partitas for Solo Violin on 3-CDs (New Focus Recordings FCR 178) and I for one am glad he did. I've been immersed in the recording for a couple of weeks, sounding a constant as the parade of life passes by, anchoring me in the unassuming but vastly rich music that counters all that life might hold in store, or amplifies it, depending on how life is at the time. For me it is more a countering these days.

At any rate Pogossian does not bring us an ultra-baroque reading, with catgut strings, baroque bows and a litany of ornamentational end points. He choses the conventional modern violin and a straightforward but feelingful production of the six works. Nonetheless it sounds very true to Bach, so I guess one could say it is a middle-of-the-road version. Pogossian gets inside the music and gives us strong performances of the very sturdy sections, then slows down to savor the movingly preludian portions.

In the end Pogossian sings from his depths and thereby channels Bach in ways that bring us joy. I most certainly recommend this version if you don't have one yet. It is a benchmark for how we hear the music today. It also extends and compliments other versions, you who like me cannot seem to get enough.

Pogossian is a true artist. His Bach rings with its own creative truth. That is a great thing.

— Grego Edwards, Gapplegate Classical, 4.4.2017

The Whole Note

On the back cover of the booklet inserted in the album sleeve is the handwritten note: “in memory of our common research of g minor. a minor sonata / Budapest 6.9.2015 / Márta-György Kurtág.” Before recording the Sonatas and Partitas Movses Pogossian journeyed from Los Angeles to Budapest to work with the 89-year-old Kurtág and his wife Márta. Pogossian had collaborated with the composer before, but on Kurtág’s music, notably the Kafka Fragments, which he performed with soprano Tony Arnold in Toronto this past March. It was then that I asked Movses about his “research” with the Kurtágs. He said that Kurtág was very particular about harmony, structure and tempo and had an allergy to anything that did not feel right. Capturing the character of the piece was the most important thing. For instance, Kurtág said the subject of the A Minor Fugue should be “without emotion,” suggesting the link between key and Affektenlehre.

Their “research” resulted in transforming the Sonatas and Partitas into something in the nature of six Baroque altarpieces, where each movement is a panel depicting a tableau that illustrates some aspect of the key in question. Pogossian remains faithful to the affect of each set, even in the Double of the Corrente of the B Minor Partita, where he frames the torrential stream of notes within the penitential mood of that key. Phrasing is free, as though allowing singers to breathe and dancers to pause between phrases. Pogossian’s approach is far from those who treat this repertoire as though an extreme sport.

The G Minor Adagio, dark timbre, grieving harmonies, each phrase rising from stillness, the fioriture parsed for motivic shapes, the last chord held 12 seconds a niente for a running time of nearly six minutes; the grave Fugue (Kurtág wished it slower); the lilting Siciliana danced with sad restraint; the grimly brilliant Presto. The desolate A Minor Sonata, the Andante, an aria of loss (compare Aus Liebe will mein Heiland sterben). Pogossian plays the D Minor Partita with noble restraint, and takes the cosmic Chaconne at a stately quarter = 46. He treats the Adagio of the C Major Sonata as though the Creator is breathing on the waters (eighth = 40), while the Olympian Fugue follows as the fully formed world. The pastoral Largo in F major is all smiles, and the final Allegro could be titled Tutto nel mondo è burla. The E Major Partita radiates uttermost joy.

The three CDs are a panoply, but they give only a hint of when one sees Pogossian in person, for he enacts the affects of the Sonatas and Partitas with his whole body and breath. Such intense identification of body, mind and spirit with sound is a rare gift. I am also grateful for the notes by Paul Griffiths, who wrote virtually short poems on each of the types of movements. They end with words on the Ciacconia: “Finally the voices spiral into the keynote. This was the lesson that had to be taught and learned. How to end.”

— Austin Clarkson, 5.30.2017, The Whole Note

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New Focus Recordings is an artist led collective label featuring releases in contemporary creative music of many stripes, as well as new approaches to older repertoire. The label was founded by guitarist Dan Lippel, composer/engineer/producer Ryan Streber, and composer Peter Gilbert in 2004, formed …Read More …